Lessons on the Road to Liberty

The
examples of how they steal elections are now thick upon the ground.
Now, the most credulous and trusting have to see that elections are
easily fixed. Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and now the swath
of states that comprise Super Tuesday, the number of elections stolen
is mind boggling. We can still elect Ron president but elections are
a problem we need to solve.

That
is one issue. More follow.

Today,
February 6th, is the first day of the real Revolution,
the final phase of the First American Revolution of 1776. This is
the moment that will take us to the destination of an America where
the people govern themselves. Do you want to be free? Do you
understand that freedom has nothing to do with life style? You
thought you were free but instead have been a slave shackled by an
illusion of prosperity. To be a revolutionary you need to lose your
illusions.

Like
the issue of stolen elections the truth is less comfortable but only
the truth allows you to fight effectively. There are problems but
those can be solved if we have the facts. Hierarchies intentionally
begin limiting what people know because, 'they know better.'

We
are facing a multi-front war that demands the open and rapid sharing
of information and creates the solution by producing the alternative
that will displace the concentration of power that begot the problem
originally. This can only happen through dispersed action from
multiple sources, a guerrilla war fought out peacefully using the
tools we already possess.

No
matter what, a hammer remains a hammer and you cannot use it to
remove the splinter from your finger. Your chosen tool matters; it
determines your ultimate outcome in advance. Forms of human
organization are tools. Centralizing authority and power creates an
attractive nuisance that will eventually destroy freedom because the
least ethical will have it at all costs.

In
the 1970s the Libertarian Party was formed to work for the freedom
that was then clearly slipping though the fingers of Americans. Many
of its founders had experienced the disappointment of the failed
Goldwater Revolution. In case you did not know the LP
was founded on a
mailing list made up from Goldwater activists and its founder had
been the head of Young Republicans for Goldwater at MIT.

By
1971 the level of frustration with the War in Vietnam and US economic
policy was mounting. Nixon, a Republican, had delivered us up yet
again to the corporations and the continuation of war that enriched
them. You can read more about the specifics in the chapter I wrote
on the subject, Libertarian
History.

The
Libertarian Party started out as a decentralized hub, a grassroots
organization run by activists. Our assumption was that we could do
it ourselves. We believed and we worked. Then, there was no
professional or want-to-be professional cadre; people from all walks
of life came together. The beginning of the end of our revolution
began with the election of Edward H. Crane, III as its national
chairman in 1974 at the Dallas Convention.

Crane
immediately asserted control in all directions. He tried but failed
to control the candidacy of Roger MacBride for President; Roger was
then producing 'Little House on the Prairie.” He did not miss in
1980.

Roger had made one critical mistake. He introduced Crane to Charles
and David Koch, the owners of Koch Industries. Koch Industries is
probably the largest privately owned oil company in the world. It
was Koch money that started Cato Institute; the Kochs are intimately
connected to the Bush White House.

The
issue central to how the Revolution will operate is hierarchy vs.
networked hub. You determine the outcome when you choose.

The
decentralized hub is a network that freely shares information and
resources. In the Ron Paul Revolution the decision of which
projects to support is made by people either volunteering or not,
donating or not. That is a direct application of the power of
individual choice. Individual choices, made with clear knowledge.

Organizational
tools can also be proprietary, effectively owned by its management.
Those who want to participate then know the limitations they accept.
We see this with most of the Ron Paul Projects, from the Toolbar to
the Granny Warriors. They offer a project; others support or decline
to support, their choice. That has worked well, too. The
information is available going in and no one presumes to speak for
others who have not authorized that on their behalf. It is
transparent, consensual, and cooperative.

For
freedom to work, as the universal principle enabling human action, we
must all have the truth and the freedom to act. The truth allows us
to make the right choices; centrists want to control information and
become a priesthood who decides for you. They take from us the
essential tools of autonomy. When the people have the truth they can
govern themselves and that is what you have been doing in the Ron
Paul Revolution. It has been glorious to experience, affirming the
power to each of us.

Freedom,
respect for others, and truth are therefore linked tools.

A
Knowledge Commons is the Open Source for information. The Internet
has moved us far in that direction but there are many fronts on which
this 2nd Revolution must be fought out. We need to see
those and make sure that each battle is won.

All
now see why clean elections are essential.

We
also need to get Ron Paul on the ballot in every state, despite the
corporate political structure. In parallel, we must ensure those
votes are honestly counted.

To
get Ron on the ballot in all 50 states we have many options. One is
the Libertarian Party. Most LPers support Ron now.

Today
the Libertarian Party is foundering and the reasons are clear.
Having passed through central regime after central regime it is still
controlled by individuals who are wedded to the tool of hierarchy.
They could change that, save the organization, and elect Ron. It
could do so by become the hub that we need. It could, after more than
30 years of existence, become itself the best tool for advancing
freedom.

We
need to take our tools seriously; we need to understand that the
tools determine the outcome. As a political party it has ballot
status in many states. It can reach out to other political parties
by example, making Ron the candidate of many parties. It would not be
acting like a political party and that would be the example that
Americans need to see.

Ideas
were the first human tools. Before any ancestor used a flint blade
the idea of cutting was present. Tools define the frame of our
world. The tool you are using determines the outcome you will
achieve. If you use a hierarchy you will end up with a centralized
power that limits access to knowledge so that someone can maximize
their power and profits.

If
you convert a hierarchy into a network you are proving it can be
done.

I
spent many years in the LP. I never noticed that local people
running their own local organizations could not solve their problems
using cooperation; I noticed that those who sought 'higher' office
tended to have a further agenda.

It
could have been different; it still can be.

When the National Office allowed it, sharing
information planted seeds of new success across the country, but far
too often that did not happen because of internal 'political'
considerations. The issue was using the organization itself for
personal profit, not to affirm autonomy for all individuals and so
strengthen local community.

The
problem can be solved. Close the National Office and create an
online service hub that simply makes resources available through
sharing. Build a place on line where projects, graphics, videos and
literature can be shared and where each can get and give advice.
Having it be peer to peer makes it a community itself. Use Chip-ins
to fund projects that deserve support but make it specific to
project. The problem of lagging fund raising would be solved and
along with the constant internecine warfare that accomplishes
nothing.

Power
should remain always at the community level, exercised by the
individuals whose time and money will be used by them for their own
purposes. It is that simple.

Today
we are facing a complete meltdown of the US economy and ever more
problems. But those threats come from allowing the centralization of
power in government, in corporations, and by our own organizations.
The LP can begin that process and make history.

In
this way the LP can fulfill its original purpose and become a tool
that makes freedom bloom in the hearts and minds of everyone who sees
it. Seeing that happen would be, itself, a powerful statement.

You
have already proven that if it needs doing it can be done from a
network. If we had relied on the Official Campaign Ron would have
ended his campaign nearly a year ago. Today a Revolution has begin,
all founded on cooperation and networking. Occasionally you will hear
people say in the Ron Paul Revolution as they once did in the LP
that, “they need the authority.” Now you will know what they are
really saying. Those speaking want power.

Networking
and cooperation are the essential tools of Revolution. Using those
we can change the world. We can carry the Revolution to the enemy.
It may seem impossible. It is not.

Above
are the straightforward political issues. Those issues, as large as
they might be, are only a small part of what must be accomplished.

If
we only elect Ron Paul without beginning to fight the other fronts we
will still lose. The wealth and capital of America is flooding off
of our shores like a tidal wave that will leave us dry and worse, in
debt we cannot clear.

We
need to save ourselves and at the same time strike a blow against the
supply lines to the corporations.

We
need to get off the grids of greed that have allowed us to be
plundered and begin to turn the lights out in Dubai, where right now
the Bush Faction of the Corporate Globals are building their new
capitol with the clear intention of using it to begin plundering the
rest of the world.

Right
now they are spending your grandchildren's lives right there on what
was bare sand in 1990. They have seven star hotels, a snow mountain
in the desert, and the first underwater hotel. If we succeed in ten
years they will be back to breeding camels.

Failing
will destroy not only our own lives but lives not yet begun. Failure
is not an option.

We
need to stop their agenda for control here and rebuild our own local
economies. These two different fronts are defensive and then
offensive. Both are necessary.

We
can do this. We are still Americans, the most productive and
inventive people on the face of the Earth.

These
are the problems we face immediately.

Educating
Americans

The
educational program needs to be community based. It needs to show
the young and their parents how the Constitution was intended to
work. For an excellent example go to Ron Paul Road Show. Student
Voter Registration.
This turns students into experts on the Constitution.

On
the Information Hub
we will be adding to resources, though I hope the LP, or someone
else, takes this over.

Defensive
Agenda - Legislative

Stop
the Real ID in those states that have failed to take action as of
yet. This is critical because on May 11th of this year
the biometrics of their program swing into play. See Stop
the Real ID for more information. They will own your most
intimate information and you will not be able to stop them from
selling it.

Laws
are now being passed to nail us to the grids. The first of these
will be laws that charge a surtax for getting off the electric grids.
Get on the notification list at Off
the Grid. We need to deliver the message to each state
legislature and ensure it does not happen. There will be more, the
corporations pay people to think of ways to suck us dry.

There
are ways of challenging the corporations that have been in bed with
government for so long, their clear intention to leave us homeless.
We need to keep all capital here in the hands of individuals. Anyone
who says that it is alright for corporations to lie, change the
terms, suborn the courts, and still collect is simply not hitting on
all pistons. It is a principle of law that the more powerful party
must be the most, not the least, scrupulous.

The
Offensive Agenda

We
need to begin immediately to take back our counties. Clean
Elections at the county level are essential to this. I say,
again, build working coalition.

The
Ron Paul Revolution should focus at the precinct level and many sites
are doing that now. Get elected precinct captain, get elected to
local office, network in your community. Share knowledge globally,
act locally. This provides the local tools to extend the revolution
and save people at risk who are threatened legally or financially.

We
need to ensure that each sheriff in each county is ready and willing
to kick the Feds out when our Constitutional rights are violated.
Sheriff Richard Mack, one of the two proponents for the Mack –
Printz Decision that overturned the Brady Bill, is already active on
this issue. His book will be out soon but don't wait, sign up and
schedule a workshop for your area by visiting his website,
Constitutional
Law Enforcement Association. When it is spelled out to your local
sheriff he will develop a backbone.

You
can also leave the Corporate State. Read the Red
Amendment. It can be done, thousands have done it already. The
Lakota chose one exit, this is another. There are many solutions.
Comparing them and choosing what works for us works best.

This
will give us the ability to both change government locally, establish
common law courts, and rebuild the local economy. We can and will go
off the dollar. We will have to, they planned the introduction of
the Amero to hit when we could not afford to say no.

Each
of these fronts is a part in the 2nd American Revolution.
Each is essential. Each demands from us a full commitment and most
importantly to know what is happening so that we can begin to enact
change in our own communities. Those changes include starting
businesses that turn off the flow of money to the grid corporations;
they include changing the framing for ourselves and others in our
communities who are hurting but do not understand the causes. People
will act to ensure their financial wellbeing without being persuaded
for political reasons.

When
we are finished we will have brought into existence the unfulfilled
promise of America. Instead of remaining a dim vision the reality
will come alive in our communities. It will fulfill the promise of
freedom, make real and tangible the shining point on a horizon for
which all humanity has hungered through untold generations. That is
the point of the Revolution.

When
you choose your fight make sure you also choose the right weapon.
When you fight, make sure you will win the future.